The US-Dakota War on Public Radio

This weekend the public radio program This American Life will premiere an episode entitled “Little War on the Prairie,” about the US-Dakota War of 1862, whose sesquicentennial we’ve written about a few times on this blog. (Most recently here.) Here’s the episode summary:

Growing up in Mankato, Minnesota, John Biewen says, nobody ever talked about the most important historical event ever to happen there: in 1862, it was the site of the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Thirty-eight Dakota Indians were hanged after a war with white settlers. John went back to Minnesota to figure out what really happened 150 years ago, and why Minnesotans didn’t talk about it much after.

This American Life streams on the web and can be downloaded as a podcast. But if you want to listen the old-fashioned way and happen to live in the Twin Cities, tune in to KNOW at 91.1 on your FM dial: Saturday, 1pm; or Sunday, 10pm.